SummaryIn her acclaimed debut, The Cutout, former CIA analyst
Francine Mathews defined a world of intrigue where only the
savvy survive. Now, in The Secret Agent, Mathews propels us
deep into the baffling history of a maverick American's
glittering life and his sudden, cataclysmic disappearance....
Here is the masterful story of secret agents of many kinds--
in a realm where truth is the most dangerous secret of all. Who was Jack Roderick? Trained by the OSS, Jack Roderick plummeted into Bangkok
one rainy morning in 1945 and never left. Silk King,
pirate, ruthless collector of beautiful objects--especially
women--Roderick was feared and respected as a foreign spy,
a business kingpin, and a trader in men's souls. And then,
at the height of the Vietnam War, caught in a killing web
of treachery and revenge that would determine the fate of
his only son, Rory, Jack Roderick walked into the jungle...
and vanished from the face of the earth. Four decades later, can the mystery be solved? International fund manager Stefani Fogg is recruited by a
man whose job it is to know the unknowable. Wealthy beyond
corruption, impervious to romance, and equipped with a mind
that can crack any enigma, Stefani signs up for the
adventure of a lifetime: playing Secret Agent to Max
Roderick, grandson of Bangkok's long-vanished Legendary
American. A world-class skier tangled in a sordid Thai
murder investigation, Max is consumed with the riddle of
Jack Roderick's disappearance--and with his own father's
death in the jungles of Vietnam. Seduced by Max's charm and intrigued by his family history,
Stefani ignores the warning signs and follows her heart.
But when Max's quarrel with the Thai police turns deadly
and a killer strikes, she knows she must return to the
place where it all began, to unravel the lies, penetrate a
deadly conspiracy, and expose a killing truth. She flees
Max's France for Bangkok's khlongs--into the ruins of the
Silk King's dark past and the mesmerizing shadow of the
Roderick family curse. What she finds, in Jack Roderick's
story and in the fate of his fighter-pilot son, is an
American dream that crashed and burned in the rice paddies
of Vietnam and a chilling legacy that haunts our own to
this day. Propelling us masterfully through half a century, from
Manhattan to the Alps to the colorful and treacherous heart
of Bangkok, and based on the life of American expatriate
Jim Thompson, The Secret Agent is at once a murder mystery,
a touching love story, and a lavishly atmospheric journey
through the exotic landscape of love and history--an
historical thriller of the first rank.
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